The French defence minister, Herve Morin, has approved a decision to declassify secret service documents that could be relevant in the probe into the disappearance of a French Polynesian journalist 11 years ago.
Jean-Pascal Couraud vanished and his family lodged a murder complaint in 2004 after a man linked to an illegal local espionage service claimed he had been kidnapped and drowned.
There have been allegations that he may have had information about an account of the former French president, Jacques Chirac, in Japan.
This has been denied by Mr Chirac.
